Laguna Woods resident hid in plain sight to survive Holocaust

• October 23, 2023

For many children, the game of hide-and-seek is played for fun, but for Betty Nasiell, hiding during part of her childhood was the key to her survival.

When she was 6 years old and living in her native Netherlands, Nasiell saw German soldiers marching past her house singing a song about continuing on to England.

It was May 1940, and the Germans had overrun her country in their bid to dominate Europe and the world during World War II.

“My father told me not to worry, and I was too young to realize the consequences,” Nasiell, 89, said in a recent interview at her home in Laguna Woods, where she has lived for 35 years,

When her mother asked if the family could go to America, her father said it was too late to escape, she recalled.

Soon Nasiell was unable to attend school or play with neighborhood children due to German decrees regarding the treatment of members of the Jewish faith.

“We had to wear a yellow star on our coats, which was sewn on to designate we were Jews,” she said in an account of her life written up by friend and neighbor AJ Lane.

“I had no idea what it was for,” Nasiell said. “I was mad about not playing with my other girlfriends.”

Although they had enough food on the table, her parents, Leo and Sascha van der Horst, had to close the department store they owned in the town of Steenwijk and relinquish their car. Leo was taken away briefly by the Germans but fortunately returned to his family in time for his wife’s birthday.

By 1942, Nasiell’s parents knew it was time to disappear with help from the local underground movement.

“My sister and I were deposited with some former store employees nearby for one night,” Nasiell said in Lane’s account. Strangers from the underground picked her up and took her by herself to the home of a couple named Liefland in Utrecht to go into hiding.

“I wasn’t thinking anything at the time but knew I couldn’t go outside except at night so I wouldn’t be seen,” Nasiell said.

During a necessary visit to a doctor, she was briefly reunited with her sister, Kathy, who was three years older, in the waiting room. She discovered that her sister had been sent to several homes in hiding but was so homesick and depressed, she was reunited with their parents.

When neighbors collaborating with the Germans entered the house where Nasiell was staying and asked her point-blank if she was Jewish, she answered that she was.

“No one had told me to say that I wasn’t,” she said.

Taken in for interrogation, she told the authorities honestly that she didn’t know where her parents were despite threats of having her ears cut off.

She was taken away to Amsterdam and held with other Jews in a theater before they were to be shipped off to Poland. Members of the underground managed to find out that she had relatives in the city who owned a kosher restaurant.

Her aunt and uncle, named Hiechentlich, paid a ransom to have Nasiell freed, and she stayed with them for several months.

Again the Germans were threatening to send Jews on their “last trip.” A member of the underground picked up Nasiell and took her to a drugstore.

“I was sitting in the corner with the Star of David under my coat,” she related to Lane. When a Nazi soldier came in and asked what she was doing there, the pharmacist said she was waiting for a prescription.

An underground worker then spirited her across the Netherlands by train to the eastern town of Nijverdal, where she joined the household of a childless couple named Pieter and Klasien Bakker. Along the way, they passed through Nasiell’s native city, but no one recognized her.

At her new hiding place, Nasiell experienced more freedom of movement. She could go anywhere she wanted.

“The neighborhood knew I was Jewish, but I did not have to display the star,” she told Lane. As the school principal was also hiding a Jewish boy, they both could go to school.

When German troops commandeered the house she was living in, she and the family went to the country, where they lived on a farm in Hellendoren. During the time she was with the Bakkers, Nasiell said she grew so much that she had to cut the toes off her shoes because new ones were not available.

As the Germans retreated toward the end of the war, they became more desperate, even launching a hand grenade through the house where Nasiell was living, nearly striking her.

In May 1945, the Netherlands was liberated. Canadians and Americans on tanks came driving into town, throwing loaves of Wonder Bread at the exhilarated people, who were finally free. When she tasted the bread, Nasiell thought it was cake, she recalled.

A few weeks after returning to the Bakkers’ house, she was reunited with her mother and sister. They had all lived in hiding, including her sister, who had been transferred 16 times.

When she asked where her father was, she learned that he had died of a heart attack two weeks before the war ended. “I never saw my father again,” Nasiell said.

“If I hadn’t been sent to eastern Holland, I would have starved,” she told Lane. “The western part of Holland had no food. And the fact that I was oblivious to what was happening around me saved my life.”

The reunited family went back to their hometown, where her mother reopened their store.

“Mother had a box of buttons that she displayed in the store’s window,” Nasiell recalled. “That’s why people came back to the store, because they needed buttons!” The store also sold clothing and linens.

Nasiell returned to school, entering fifth grade as if she had never missed any learning time.

An uncle with a store in northern Holland helped the family get back on its feet, and three years later, her mother was remarried to a man named Hans Hartog.

In 1959, Nasiell came to the United States with her first husband, a Dutchman who served in the U.S. Army, and lived in California. They had two sons, Leon and Irvin. Later divorced, she married Gus Nasiell, a Swede, with whom she moved to the Village. He died last year.

Neighbor Lane met Nasiell at the pool three years ago, became fascinated by her story and wrote a short biography for the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, which chronicles the history of the Holocaust.

“You are living history,” Lane tells Nasiell and feels adamant that her friend’s story be told before it is too late, before living witnesses to the horrors of the Holocaust are gone.

Nasiell said she feels great gratitude to the people who risked their lives to hide her.

“I regret that I never went back to thank the families I lived with,” she said. “I never saw them again nor remained in contact.”

She and Lane hope that by publicizing her story, descendants of the families who saved her may reach out and make contact after all these years.

​ Orange County Register 

Chargers can’t contain Patrick Mahomes in loss to Chiefs

• October 23, 2023

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A first-half offensive showcase between Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert and Kansas City Chiefs counterpart Patrick Mahomes turned into a second-half defensive grind Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium. Mahomes and the Chiefs took a 31-17 victory, their sixth consecutive win.

Herbert and the Chargers (2-4) couldn’t rally in the second half from a one touchdown deficit after each team’s offense put on a second-quarter show. Mahomes completed 32 of 42 passes for 424 yards with four touchdowns and one interception by game’s end for AFC-leading Kansas City (6-1).

Herbert completed 17 of 30 passes for 259 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions.

The Chargers were shut out in the second half.

The Chiefs took a 24-17 lead by halftime, with Mahomes working his magic in the form of 20-for-23 passing for 321 yards and three touchdowns with one interception. His 1-yard touchdown pass to tight end Travis Kelce broke a 17-17 tie with 15 seconds remaining in the first half.

Herbert, playing for the second consecutive game with the fractured middle finger on his left hand protected by padding and a white glove, did what he could to match all that the Chiefs had to offer in the opening half, which was plenty. Herbert completed 10 of 14 passes for 159 yards and one touchdown.

Kansas City got the ball back with a little more than two minutes left in the half, and Mahomes drove the Chiefs 96 yards in six plays over 2:33 for the go-ahead score. Kelce’s touchdown reception was his ninth catch of the half on nine targets from Mahomes for a total of 143 yards.

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Chargers running back Joshua Kelley’s 49-yard touchdown run that tied the score 10-10 was the first TD the Chiefs had given up this season of 20 yards or more. Kelley gained 61 of the Chargers’ 96 yards rushing in the first half. Kelley had four carries. Austin Ekeler had 22 yards on seven carries.

After a 35-point second quarter, the teams were scoreless in the third, with Kansas City taking its 24-17 lead into the fourth. The Chargers shifted into more man-to-man coverage against Kelce after halftime, an adjustment that worked to great effect and kept them in striking distance.

Kelce had 12 catches for 179 yards by game’s end.

​ Orange County Register 

Rams defense collapses in fourth quarter of loss to Steelers

• October 23, 2023

INGLEWOOD — Through three quarters, the Rams defense looked as though it had put the Steelers into a box. Six first downs, 110 total yards, three three-and-outs, some standout performances by Michael Hoecht and Cobie Durant.

But when the clock struck the fourth quarter, it was as though the Rams had been transformed into Halloween pumpkins.

The Rams allowed back-to-back touchdown drives to open the fourth quarter, giving up 139 yards and nine first downs on those drives alone as George Pickens and Diontae Johnson gashed them deep.

Their touchdown lead erased, the Rams offense gained just 18 yards and punted it away. But the defense, gassed as it was, could not keep the Steelers from moving down the field, or stop quarterback Kenny Pickett’s decisive fourth-down sneak to close out a 24-17 Rams loss.

The Rams fell to 3-4 for the season and the Steelers improved to 4-2.

The offense wasn’t at its best, but it was doing enough to get the Rams into scoring positions. Running backs Darrell Henderson and Royce Freeman, both promoted off the practice squad, combined for over 100 yards and did not allow the Steelers to key in on the pass.

And on a day in which Cooper Kupp dropped his first two targets and couldn’t find a rhythm, rookie Puka Nacua and Tutu Atwell came through.

Atwell came out of nowhere to grab a pass intended for Kupp, falling over in the end zone, to score a touchdown. And Nacua put together his fourth 100-yard performance in seven games. His toe-tapping, 36-yard gain against double coverage put the Rams in position for Henderson to punch in the score and put the Rams ahead.

But kicker Brett Maher missed a pair of field goals and an extra point that could have made a difference in the game.

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​ Orange County Register 

Laiatu Latu, UCLA defense display dominance against Stanford

• October 22, 2023

While Ethan Garbers started at quarterback and Carson Steele scored three touchdowns and served as the focal point in the UCLA football team’s victory over Stanford, it was edge rusher Laiatu Latu and the Bruins’ defense that continued to display their dominance.

The defense allowed just 24 total rushing yards on 17 carries along with 268 passing yards and a touchdown against the Cardinal’s offense.

“I thought it was a good team win out there,” said UCLA coach Chip Kelly. “We generated a pass rush and made it difficult for their offense with that front of ours. It’s difficult to block so we kept them behind.”

Stanford quarterback Ashton Daniels was sacked four times by the Bruins, improving their average to 3.43 per game and sitting tied for eighth in the country.

Latu improved his sack total to 6.5 on the season, tied for ninth nationally, after bringing down Stanford quarterback Aston Daniels for a 3-yard loss on second-and-12 late in the second quarter.

The edge rusher has 17 sacks (10.5 in 2022) as a Bruin and ties Takkarist McKinley (2014-16), Neal Dellocono (1981-84), Karl Morgan (1979-82), Martin Moss (1978-81) and Manu Tuiasosopo (1975-78) for 13th on the program’s all-time career sacks list.

Latu needs four sacks to surpass Mark Walen (1982-85) to claim sole possession of 10th all-time.

The senior was named as an Associated Press Midseason All-American first-team defender last Wednesday.

Defensive lineman Gabriel Murphy produced a pair of sacks on third down that forced the Cardinal to punt in the first and third quarter respectively. Redshirt sophomore linebacker Carson Schwesinger also had his first career sack as a Bruin.

Kelly spoke highly of Alex Johnson during a pregame radio show interview and mentioned that the defensive back had been playing at an “All-American level” this season.

Johnson has also received midseason honors, being named to the Pro Football Focus midseason All-American first team. He currently leads the Pac-12 Conference with three interceptions.

While he didn’t improve his total Saturday night, he did finish among the Bruins’ tackling leaders with five. He also blocked Aidan Flintoft’s 20-yard punt attempt in the third quarter.

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“It was there all night,” Johnson said. “It was almost perfection. It should’ve been a clean block for a touchdown but we will take what we can get.”

Stanford was unsuccessful on all four fourth-down attempts against the Bruins. Cornerback Devin Kirkwood was responsible for one of those stops, forcing receiver Elic Ayomanor to fumble the ball after a 15-yard completion on fourth-and-5. Linebacker Oluwafemi Oladejo recovered the ball for the Bruins. It was the second recovery this season.

“I think our effort is consistent,” Johnson said. “If our effort is as consistent as it’s been then I think that will be the showcase that you see week in and week out.”

​ Orange County Register 

Crowds enjoy Silverado Days “shindig” in Buena Park

• October 22, 2023

Buena Park’s Silverado Days continues Sunday with entertainment and festivities filling Peak Park.

Already visitors have been enjoying contests such as pie eating and cutest baby; they’ve been shopping the marketplace of crafts and local businesses; and they’ve been thrilled by the carnival rides.

Community performers and bands have been entertaining the crowds throughout the three-day festival.

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Sunday opens with a 7 a.m. pancake breakfast and there is chili cookoff and classic car show.

The Buena Park Noon Lions Club hosts Silverado Days as a fundraiser for local charities. This is the event’s 67th year.

If you go

When: 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday

Where: Peak Park, 7225 El Dorado Drive

Cost: Admission is free

Information: silveradodays.com

​ Orange County Register 

Illegal fireworks show in Santa Ana seen across Orange County

• October 22, 2023

Booms and explosions could be heard across Orange County on Saturday night after a large cache of fireworks were lit off in an industrial area in Santa Ana.

The pyrotechnic blasts were illegal, Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Steve Concialdi said. The fireworks, which Santa Ana police said were set off in the vicinity of Birch Street and Central Avenue, could be seen or heard as far away as Huntington Beach and Aliso Viejo.

“I thought I was hearing artillery fire and/or Godzilla’s footsteps,” one person wrote on Reddit.

“Whoa I’m in HB and this is wild. It was louder than the air show… I saw what looked like fireworks in the sky tho?” wrote another.

No injuries were reported.

A 5-minute video shared on YouTube titled “Pyromaniac Takeover” showed a group of people lighting off several different devices on an empty street before a flurry of fireworks burst into the sky, followed by thick plumes of white smoke and a series of bangs, booms, and whistles.

The video was removed on Sunday. But another one could be seen on TikTok.

Another video recorded in the area shows remnants of leftover fireworks, smoke, and small fires lining a street in Santa Ana. The driver filming the video appears to be caught up in the blast after a firework erupts right next to his car.

random huge fireworks were going off in #OrangeCounty CA and I decided to find the origin of it and stupidly drove through it pic.twitter.com/fKsqBFsqZw

— James Lee (@jlsupreme) October 22, 2023

At least 40 people gathered in the area to watch what appeared to be an orchestrated, illegal fireworks show, a security guard at the cannabis dispensary 420 Central said. Several food trucks stationed next door had their windows shattered from the shockwaves.

Tensions grew after police arrived around 11:30 p.m. and chased a car out of the area. Afterward, the security guard said, several people started throwing fireworks at him and said fireballs were going off in his direction. He asked to remain anonymous out of safety concerns.

Details on the number of fireworks set off or whether there were any arrests were not immediately available.

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​ Orange County Register 

What has happened to Caleb Williams and USC’s vaunted offense?

• October 22, 2023

There were no tears, this time.

Another critical game against Utah ended in defeat, another USC team outcoached and outlasted, and this time Caleb Williams seemed all but drained of emotion. Remaining on the bench, postgame, as Utah stormed the field, the rest of his teammates slowly making their way to the tunnel, their quarterback sighing and staring into a void of nothing in particular. Giving, on the FOX broadcast, a resigned handshake to center and fellow captain Justin Dedich.

Reality had set in, cruel and unforgiving. Bleak. This was a man who has been universally renowned as a leader since the day Williams stepped foot on Gonzaga College High’s campus, since calming the nerves of running back Jaden Knowles in their first extended stretch of playing time at Oklahoma. Who had spoken to his USC teammates, before this pivotal season, about the importance and opportunity of creating a legacy so grand their name could walk into rooms they were never present within.

“You can’t go win a championship by yourself … it’s a whole 110 players that’s immortal with you,” Williams said in August.

But immortality, in the span of a drubbing in South Bend and a heartbreaking 34-32 loss to Utah at the Coliseum, has slipped away. No team in this current era of the College Football Playoff has ever made the tournament with two losses. USC is out of contention for a national championship; a road to a Pac-12 championship doesn’t look much easier, with back-to-back games against Washington and Oregon coming up.

And the rumor mill, slowly building steam across the past couple weeks, will now be chugging steadily across the final few weeks of USC’s season. Emmanuel Acho suggested in a now-viral tweet that Williams should consider sitting out the rest of the season to preserve his health for the league, massively amplifying a take that’d been whispered in corners of social media. Noise around Williams’ potential to pass up the NFL for a third season of college has built, ever since father Carl suggested in an early-September GQ profile that his son could return to USC if they didn’t feel he’d be landing in a good situation with a pro team.

“In a perfect world, yeah, would every single player, staff member, everybody in your program be so hyper-focused that they don’t hear noise on the outside or outside expectations or all of that?” coach Lincoln Riley said postgame, Williams absent from the postgame presser. “But that’s probably not reality, either.”

Noise has built, correspondingly, as Williams has noticeably seemed just off the past couple weeks.

On Saturday, with 8 yards to strike paydirt and down eight with less than four minutes to go, Williams took a snap out of the shotgun, faked a handoff as pressure bore down, and reared up to fire to Kyron Hudson in the corner of the end zone.

The ball slipped out of his hands.

It was the confounding climax of arguably the worst stretch of Williams’ collegiate life as a passer: largely slowed against Arizona, seeming to force a couple throws-turned-picks against Notre Dame and going without a touchdown pass Saturday for the first time in his USC career. Across formations with increased presence in the secondary – Utah giving seven different defensive backs over 30 snaps Saturday — standard drop-backs haven’t generated much over the past couple weeks, and Williams has missed on a number of throws after a near-flawless start.

Against Utah, Williams threw for just 115 yards on 22 attempts on plays without a run-pass option, according to Pro Football Focus; almost the same as his metrics the previous week, throwing for 127 on 23 attempts on drop-backs. Outside of a nifty Zachariah Branch end-around touchdown in the first quarter, USC’s offense looked unimaginative on Saturday when compared to Utah’s deployment of breakout two-way star Sione Vaki.

“I’ve had, I think, an OK track record in calling plays,” Riley said postgame. “Confident in my ability and our ability to do that, but we’ve got to be better for each other.”

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Riley insisted on Tuesday the tape from Notre Dame showed wide-open receivers running amok, but it’s clear USC is having trouble utilizing its skill players against strong defensive units — as evidenced by Riley giving some key third-quarter playing time to long-dormant freshmen Duce Robinson and Makai Lemon.

Brenden Rice and Tahj Washington, who had 112 yards on Saturday, have been the only consistent big-play threats in the Trojans’ wide-receiver room; Arizona transfer Dorian Singer continues to be largely an afterthought, Branch had just two touches Saturday, and running back MarShawn Lloyd was churning before a costly third-quarter fumble.

“To play really good and be successful, you’ve gotta be really sharp,” Riley said postgame. “And at times, we were really sharp and at times we were not. So obviously gotta play better there.”

​ Orange County Register 

Life can be peaceful without hearing aids. Or maybe not

• October 22, 2023

I have got to find my hearing aids. They’re missing, not lost. The difference is that I have a better chance of finding them if they’re just missing. Lost … they might forever stay lost. You know, like the Lost Boys in Peter Pan, they might be banished to Neverland.

My hearing aids will probably cost just a shade under $3,000 — and that’s just my cost. Thank God I have insurance.

I’m getting tired of hearing just bits and pieces of conversations, if I hear them at all. On Sunday, our vicar at St. George’s said that I did a beautiful reading, and I did a knee-jerk type of reply — “And you did a wonderful sermon.” And I’m sure it was because the Rev. Pat’s sermons are always very good.

I’m trying to fake that I’m hearing what other people are saying to me by nodding occasionally and smiling a lot. But I live in fear that someday someone will be saying, “And it was such a tragic loss because the whole house burnt down.” Or “And the death was so tragic.” And there I’ll be smiling like I love fires or doom and gloom.

I was at a Publishing Club meeting recently talking with Nancy Brown, the club’s president, when she reminded me to get my nametag. So I walked out to the sign-in table, and the only words that came out clearly to me were “strip search.” Again, a knee-jerk reply, “Oh, me, me … I volunteer. I’ll do it.” Everyone at the table laughed, so I think you can see that they’re a fun bunch of people. I heartily recommend that you check out the club sometime.

Lucy has finally figured it all out. If she needs to go out, she starts by wagging her tail, and I get the drift. But if I’m not looking, she starts barking extremely loudly. She turns up the volume a lot. So now it’s “bark, bark, bark … dang it, woman … let me out!”

About the only good thing about not having my hearing aids is that life is very peaceful, because I hear only about 20% of it. Hopefully, it’s the important bits.

“What’s that you say? You’re going to retire? I thought you were already retired.”

“Oh, oh, my house is on fire. That makes a lot more sense.”

Oops, guess I’d better go and do something about that.

Diane Duray is a Laguna Woods Village resident. Contact her at [email protected].

​ Orange County Register